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Understanding paintings
- 1. Understanding paintings Krishnan, GTC Talk
- 2. Seeing vs Looking •Easy access to great paintings today – Greeting cards – Internet • Seeing involves opening your eyes • Looking involves opening your mind and taxing your intellect • Look, don’t just see !
- 3. Six guidelines forlooking at paintings • Subject – Sometimes historical or mythological figures • Techniques – Use of oil paints, frescos • Symbolism – Many paintings use language of symbolism and allegory that was understood by the artists and audiences of the time • Space and light – Artists mastery in creating space and light • Historical Style – Each historical period had a style – Renaissance to Modern times • Personal Interpretation – What you see with your knowledge of history, symbolism and techniques
- 4. Bacchus and Ariadne Subject Each painting has specific subject with meaningful message Subjects could be mythological figures
- 5. The Arnolfini marriage ByJan Van Eyck Known for mastery in oil paint
- 6. The supper atEmmaus Recognizable objects stand for abstract ideas and concepts
- 7. Las Meninas All artistshave to create an illusion of space and light in different ways
- 8. What creates amasterpiece • Virtuosity – Skills + knowledge and imagination • Innovation – Rewriting the existing rules – Giotto and Picasso • Patronage – Catholic church and Royal coursts • Artistic vision – Michelangelo’s ceiling
- 9. Frescoes • Fresco isa technique of mural painting • Executed upon freshly laid lime plaster • Water is used as vehicle for the pigment • With setting of the plaster, painting becomes part of the wall
- 11. The annunciation • ByGuido de Pietro at the Fra Angelico Altarpiece • Things to look for – A closed garden – symbolizing Mary’s purity – Classical architecture – slender corinthian columns – Archangel Gabriel – Youthful, energetic – Halo around Mary – Handmaiden of God – verses upside down (so God could read them) – Gothic style of Mary’s chair – Holy spirit – dove as the symbol
- 12. Giotto: The adorationof the magi
- 13. The adoration ofthe Magi • Painted at the Arena chapel c. 1304-1306 by Giotto de Bondone (1267-1337) • Things to look for – People’s position and character – The country lad in ill-fitting clothes – Kneeling king Caspar – sign of humility – Mountainous scenery – Shooting star – Giotto had seen a comet
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- 16. The Deposition • ByRoger van der Weyden • Look for – The similarities in posture of Mary (with blue robe) and Christ – The plain clothes on the left and royal clothes on the right offset one less person on the right – Bracketing by people on the side focuses attention on Christ and Mary – The skull symbolises Adam (Christ was crucified at spot where Adam was buried, one signifying fall and the other the rise)
- 18. A dance tothe music of time • Painting by Nicolas Poussin (1594-1665) • Four allegorical figures: Pleasure, wealth, industry and poverty • Look for – Circular motion of dance in a triangle – Permanence and transcience – Statue of two faced Janus with flowers – Poverty and wealth holding hands
- 20. The oath ofthe Horatii • By Jacques Louis David (1748-1825) • War between Roman Horatii and Alba Coratii • Theme of heroism and civic virtue, painted before the French revolution • Look for – Strong profiles of soldiers, gentle curves of the sisters – Child pushing grandmothers hand to look at the swords – Austere columns signifying masculinity and military
- 22. The experiment withthe air pump • By Joseph Wright • Things to look for – The experiment: Will the bird survive if oxygen is pumped out – in a home setting – typical of 18th century – The lovers: not attentive to the experiment – The scientist: looks of a magician – The person with the clock: Timing the experiment – The girls reassured by their father – The boy – not sure if the cage should be lowered/needed – The philosopher – pondering the consequences – The moon: Sign of enlightenment
- 24. The Hay Wain •By John Constable • Quintessential English painting, painted in Suffolk, green countryside • Things to look for – Washerwoman in front of cottage – Dog drawing attention – Cooling the horses – Clouds and the pattern of light
- 26. The awakening conscience •By William Holman Hunt • Look for – Depiction of luxurious items in the girls house – Nostalgic song – Oft in the silly night – about a woman reflecting on her childhood innocence – Cat and bird – Reflecting that salvation is possible for the woman – Discarded glove – The woman’s fate if she does not mend her ways
- 28. The vanities oflife • By Harmen SteenWyck • Shell represents wealth • Chronometer represents finite time, the sword (a symbol of power) reminds power is powerless before death • Reminded of vanities of love (shawm) and knowledge (book) • Extinguished lamp depicts life may end anytime
- 29. Impressionist paintings • Nostory to tell or moral to communicate – Common ordinary subject matter • Had pre-mixed colors in metal tubes, earlier artist had to mix the colors himself • Renoir – Girl with a hoop
- 31. Autumn effect atArgentuil • By Claude Monet • Look for – Rainbow palette – Bold brushstrokes at the bottom, finer with distance – Reflected images – Rippling of the wind on the right
- 33. The bedroom atArles • By Vincent Van Gogh, 1888 • Color is everything, can suggest emotion regardless of the subject • Unsophisticated and authentic • Look for – Thick brushstrokes – Violet walls in harmony with green windows and contrast with yellow beds/chairs – Portraits of Van Gogh and his sister on the wall
- 35. Le Grande Jatte •By Georges Seurat • Technique of divisionism – instead of mixing colors, put them separately and let the eye mix it • Look for – Boating on the Seine and Woman fishing – Mixing of the classes – Perspective scheme – Woman with umbrella larger – supposed to be seen at 45 degrees
- 37. A bar atthe Folies-Bergere • By Eduardo Manet • Set in a Paris night club • Look for – Mirror – Inaccurate reflections depicting difference in time between subject and reflection – Difference in drinks (champagne and beer) depicting different classes of society
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- 39. Guernica • Painted duringSpanish civil war • Look out for – Bull depicting brutality – Woman with dead child – Severed head – Horse – Woman with hands up raised to protect from bombs
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